Songs in the Key of Strange Minor
by Mariagoner
Summary: Larsa, Penelo plaintively asked him from above, are you waiting for me to rust down there before you do something? Larsa X Penelo, futurefic. Part of the Uses of Enchantment series. Contains sexual situations.


Written for the beauteous and ridiculously talented Mithrigil, with much assistance given by both her and Auraki. This is by far the most ambitious 'fic I've ever tried to write and it's linked to an earlier story, A Sort of Fairy Tale, making them both part of a new series-- The Uses of Enchantment. I hope you do enjoy and, for those that would like to stay away from explicit sex, an R-rated, teen-friendly version of this is available up on here.

And over and above everything else, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

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**Title: Songs in the Key of Strange Minor**

**Fandom: Final Fantasy XII**

**Series: The Uses of Enchantment**

**Pairings: Larsa X Penelo, Future-fic**

**Rating: R version (NC-17 Version Also Available)**

**Summary: Larsa always did know he had married a woman of many talents.**

**Addendum for Readers: **Due to ratings restriction, I wasn't able to put the full NC-17 version of this fanfic up on the site. Please head over to my Livejournal to read it. (Again, I'd link you, but this site doesn't let me do so!) And if you can't find my LJ, email me directly to receive the liink, okay? Sorry about the trouble, but I only post at 2 places on the 'net. Also, annotations for this fic are also now going up in my Livejournal!

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On the last night of his 20th year of life, the Emperor of Archadia roused sleepily from what had once promised to be a sound evening in, only to be startled to find his wife snoring into his lap.

It probably shouldn't have been so great a surprise, he knew that much. Larsa Ferrinas Solidor, also known as the Protector of the Northern Realms, as the Ruler of the Eastern Territories and the Diplomat of the South, and as a heap of other titles he couldn't recall at this late an hour, hadn't grown up with the greatest role models of spousal bliss to follow. His mother, after all, hadn't even been married to his lord father before his conception him and her subsequent death, which certain malicious (and quickly demoted) nobles whispered might have led to his own taste in a low-born wife. Growing up, the closest thing to a mother and father pairing he had had had been Gabranth and Drace and they had…

Well, he loved them, never could stop loving them, but he could never see-- did not want to see-- Penelo and himself living as they had. And so, in preparation for his own married life, he had taken the trouble to do research.

Afterwards, after he had consulted a great many books on the subject and stretched his imagination to its limits trying to see Penelo as a dutiful and humble bride and he as a stern and commanding groom, he had told her of what he had learned. His then-fiancee had ended up falling out of her chair in laughter when he told her of exactly what said authorities thought they ought to both do once he finally slipped that wedding ring onto her finger. When she had crawled back on moments later, shining hair falling over a face sodden with actual tears, she had told him that she knew a bit of what a married couple ought to be like and that was more of a terrifying ideal than anything else.

Well, Penelo had been the one with the happy family life, at least before his family's political intrigues had dissolved it, and so he deferred to her authority in this. He had thrown away most of the books and they had started from scratch thereafter. And in the seven months that they had been married-- seven of the happiest, albeit most complicated, months of his life, the books hadn't lied about that much, being a newlywed was usually bliss, heaven on earth-- he had had the chance to get used to her as she really was, not as those who didn't even know her thought she should be.

Their life together was still coming together now, gradually melding into an odd, hodge-podge mix of the diplomatic and the deviant, the sensible and the salacious, of getting up to play Cinderella and Prince Charming before adoring crowds in the morning before having sex so exuberant that it kept them from arriving on time for the noble audiences that came afterwards. And when she was actually around, Larsa usually congratulated himself on a job well done.

He had known from the first that Penelo would have rather clawed her own ovaries out rather than sit around as an empress of the old style, concerned with nothing but breeding heirs for the empire and standing in as a silent, adoring consort. And though it scandalized many in his court even more than the marriage itself, Larsa had managed to find ways to make her position of some use. He consulted with his wife on some affairs of the state (especially concerning education for the poor, possible ways to improve Old Archades and methods of conducting magical research, though matters of technology could make her eyes cross), delegated the responsibility of pardoning petty but high-profile criminals towards her end, gradually unwound enough to trust her with actual diplomatic duties and now only occasionally dodged the pastries she flung at his head when she thought he was getting "all creepy and scheming" once more.

It wasn't the sort of life he had expected to lead when he first asked for her hand, but he thought they were bearing up fairly well. Living with Penelo was nothing he expected it to be and being married to her was turning out to be even more a surprise. And as Larsa gently ran his fingers through the long, copper-bright braid that spiraled down his wife's curled back as her head sunk deeper into his lap, he thought it was one he could co-exist with quite happily in the years that seemed to stretch hopefully ahead of them.

But there were some wifely tasks that Penelo did impeccably enough to give even the greatest of her blue-blooded opponents pause. She went through public audiences with the sort of honest enthusiasm and élan that precious few who had done them since childhood could muster, she eagerly participated in the acts of charity and peacekeeping that were slowly but surely turning Archadia from a world-conqueror to a world-builder, and she had even ceased "accidentally" setting fire to the wigs of the petty few who still hadn't realized that it was better not to scorn their new empress openly. And really, given how hard Larsa wanted to throttle them himself, that was practically an exercise in restraint.

And whenever she was in Archades, she shared his bed (as well as, occasionally, his bath and breakfast) with a gusto that bordered on indecent. (Not that he minded-- or was foolish enough to tell her so.) So the fact that she was with him in their marital bed wasn't the surprise. But what was a little staggering was the fact that she was actually here when she was, technically speaking, supposed to the wining and dining Rozarrian notables in their kingdom's capital city.

Penelo, to almost everyone's surprise by Vaan's, turned out to be an effective natural diplomat, which a life-time of performing seemed to have accidentally prepared her for it. She would claim to her dying day that, given all the trouble that Vaan seemed determine to blunder in over the years as her partner, she had more or less had to talk her way out of trouble just so she wouldn't get messily killed by angry mobs holding torches and pitch-forks and bellowing for the blood of the "Rats-man" (which inexplicably annoyed Vaan more than their blood lust.) But whatever it was, Penelo had the underestimated ability to charm and flatter people until she could shepherd them into doing what she liked while they suspected just the opposite was occurring. Rozarrians, especially, seemed to respond well to her, a fact that Larsa greeted with no small amount of mixed amusement and horror.

In fact, for the past month, she had spent all her time traveling abroad, going to both Dalmasca and Rozarria to resolve various issues involving tariffs and trades. He had sent quite a few professional members of the diplomatic corps with her, but none had the glamour of a newly crowned head of state, especially not one that had grown up middle class, became orphaned in her teenage years, was on hand to avert a disastrous war between rival empires, had grown up to become an infamous sky pirate and then settled down with a man who had first met her at the merry old age of twelve.

People abroad were, not unnaturally, quite eager to meet her. Larsa tried his damnest not to resent it too much, or get too angry at her when she agreed to go.

He had failed and they had their first fight (previous squabbles over who topped who in the bedroom didn't count) over it. Larsa had actually raised his voice to invoke his authority as both her husband and her emperor, which hadn't done much to dissuade her. Penelo had just scoffed and told him that he couldn't frighten her-- she had known him when he had ran around in tights and knee-high booties and that wasn't exactly a memory calculated to strike fear into her heart, no matter how many ruffled robes he put on now.

And later, Penelo had raised her own and told him that she loved him but she wasn't going to let him control her life or let him keep her from doing what needed to be done. Damn it, she knew that he had gone to a lot of trouble to marry her and wouldn't he like her to help him relieve some of it? Were they or weren't they friends, lovers, comrades? Had he or hadn't he married her at least partially because he knew that she wouldn't let him face his troubles on his own?

In the end, he was forced to admit she was right on most of those accounts. If she didn't want to remain a political liability abroad-- though Archades had opened its hearts towards her, there were still a few places overseas that were displeased that he had turned down their princesses for her-- she would have to go and introduce herself to said places herself. So she had packed her bags and left to exert her force of personality on others less deserving and the past month of marriage had, for the newly-wed Emperor, been a ridiculously dreary one.

After all, Larsa had made his excuses for his marriage to the nobility of Archadia skillfully enough to make Vayne himself proud; he had done his part to convince the hoi polloi and gentry of his realm that marrying Penelo would help his empire. He had turned her public image into something that even other rulers could not openly sneer at; she was not born into the peerage but she had long been elevated to a Dalmascan title by Queen Ashelia and her popularity among the masses, which even stripped Larsa's at this point, was turning out to be an effective means of leveraging social control. Larsa had taken many pains to craft for his wife the role of the People's Empress, so that those of his realm who knew of her had better think of her as someone who belonged besides his throne.

In the end, though, he had married Penelo because he loved her. And even more, he had married her because he wanted at least one part of his life to be a sanctuary away from the politics he had been immersed in even before he had been crowned emperor.

Maybe it was selfish, but he wanted to keep one thing in the world that didn't have to fall in line with all the expectations of his status, that didn't serve him on bended knees that knew no other position, that didn't know him first and foremost as a figure whose bloodline entitled him to rule a third of all the world.

And that Penelo was turning into an asset for his empire over and above what he had imagined turned out to be something he...

He didn't know exactly how he felt about that at all.

All he really knew was that he missed her desperately when she was gone, that all the grand palaces he dwelt in seemed but hollow piles of stone without her lighting them up, that she should have been about a thousand miles away, dressed in those sleek furs and glittering silver-and-gold gowns she had gamely donned since her coronation, batting her silverfish lashes at foreign politicians who took all too much pleasure from her conversation when he could have none in it at all. She should have been spreading good news of the marriage of the Emperor of Archades overseas, meeting with Ashe to assure her of his continuing support and charming some of the most powerful men of the southern states into being just a bit more lax about their policies towards importing Archadian machines into their realms.

In short, Penelo should have been anywhere in the world but at his side tonight, whether or not she was his lawfully wedding wife. And though he couldn't find it in him to anything but light-headed about the turn of events, he did have to wonder for a minute if it was just a hallucination bought on by missing her for the past few weeks, especially on the eve of his next birthday.

For some reason, ever since he had ascended the throne, the court that surrounded him seemed determined to turn it into a spectacle of who could prostate themselves before him more. Year 21 was looming ahead of him tomorrow and the courtiers of Archades seemed to be outdoing themselves on preparing filibusters to prove their devotion. He was man enough to admit that he was dreading the official ceremonies planned ahead, though having Penelo by his side would have helped, if only because her comments tended to be most entertaining right when his subjects were most sycophantic. It was not a quality that endeared her to the blue-bloods any… but right now, given that the Senate was still dissolved, he didn't worry much about it either.

The woman sprawling across his lap probably might just be a dream conjured up by wistfulness, though she certainly didn't seem very much like a hallucination. In fact, if anything, she seemed devastating real by his side, delicate and warm and just a shade darker than he was used to, clad in one of those filmy dark night gowns that scandalized the upper class women and were wholly embraced as a new found fad among the lower-classed ones. The hair that he trailed his eager fingers through was silky as he remembered and the knuckles he gently pressed his tongue against were as hard and sweet as ever.

Yes, she seemed real as ever he could have asked for. But jaw squared, Larsa still bought one hand up to his arm. He knew what he had to do just then, even if he didn't look forward to it.

But one vicious pinch later, her head was still lolling about in his lap and snoring in the way he had gotten rather fond of. It wasn't even a proper snore, really, which made sense since Penelo and proper could barely cooperate in the same sentence without someone ending up needing medical attention somewhere. It was just that strange, sort of flute-like whistling sound she always gave off whenever she was deep in the land of dream sand. Smiling and touching one cheek of her delicate, mobile face, Larsa found he had didn't particularly mind it. In fact, if he had his way, he would have curled up again and listened to the funny sound of her breathing until the morning came.

But her presence was still a surprise and surprises more or less demanded investigation, especially when they concerned matters of the state. So, with a certain degree of trepidation (Penelo had a mean right hook when she was startled), he gently righted her in their bed and shook his wife awake.

Thankfully, she didn't immediately throw a fist at him, which relieved him more than he cared to admit. Even more fortunately, waking up at the slightest move was yet another habit she had retained from her sky pirate years. It took him only a few pokes and prods to have her opening her soft, sleep-dimmed eyes up to him and only a few beats of his heart for him to hang over her, waiting with baited breath to hear the first words she'd tell him after so long and so aching a time apart.

"Mrghflagbraggan," was all she said in beginning, though a few more caresses bought out a somewhat more coherent: "Oh, it's you. What're you doing here?"

As far as greetings after a month of separation went, it wasn't quite a "Darling, I've missed you, let's never be parted since my life has been so dreary and lost without you at my side for all my waking hours." But it was so very-- Penelo of her, so matter-of-face and light and unsentimental, and he had to fight hard not to laugh when he answered her query.

"Pardon?" he replied. "I might very well ask the same of you. Aren't you suppose to be somewhere far, far away from Archades just now?"

For a minute, Penelo looked mostly dazed. "Am I?"

Larsa kept his face carefully blank. It would be downright cruel of him to try and take advantage of her in her moment of sleep-induced confusion and give her a wrong answer.

Also, she'd inevitably find out later and she had a terribly devastating kick.

"Rozarria?" Larsa tried. "With Al-Cid Magrace and the rest of his illustrious clan? Introducing yourself to the nobility of the southern realms? Establishing yourself as one of the crowned rulers of the Archadian empire through overseas travel and tithing? Negotiating over import and export tariffs via the barter of your beauty? Soothing the fragile egos of those who thought they themselves out to wear your crown"

Even in the dim lighting, Penelo looked deeply nonplussed for a moment. "Oh… right. All of that. Well, why didn't you say so from the start?"

Larsa's eyebrows raised of their own accord, over and above his slight smile. "I didn't think I needed to."

Penelo was starting to look more awake now, as though the customary veil of sleep that always enveloped her after her cat-naps was finally being shrugged off. She had to be if she could look at him with the sort of wide, puppy-dog eyes that never ceased to make his insides melt ever since he had turned thirteen. "Have pity on me, please. I just spent the past five hours taking an emergency flight here to be by your side for the snores tomorrow. And this is, by the way, right after I did everything on that list and even managed to get Al-Cid to stop looking down the front of my dress whenever we had an audience together."

Even past the sudden and deep gratitude suddenly filling him, Larsa managed a response. "Deeply kind of him, I'm sure. Frankly, I'm not sure I would have been able to ignore that temptation."

She flashed him a slightly wicked grin. "You can do whatever you want with me any time." And before he even had time to redden, she continued: "But surprisingly enough, he eventually did. I'm thinking that it might be because he was reaaally impressed after the demonstration I gave with casting status-enhancements on yourself after using a bit more mana than usual." A bit more, as Larsa knew, meaning twice as much.

He lightly took one of her small, white hands in his larger, browner ones. "I always did know that I married a woman of many talents."

Penelo's face looked cheerfully smug and shiny, even in the low lights surrounding them. "And so did he-- especially after I bent a few metal rods in front of him. It's amazing how much more seriously people take you once you show them that you really can wring their scrawny royal necks with your bare hands if they piss you off enough."

Abandoning any attempts at dignity-- a fruitless priority whenever he was with her anyway-- Larsa collapsed laughing besides her. "What am I to do with a lunatic as luminous as you?"

Her eyes widened and her hands went flying to cover her mouth. "You mean, besides ravish the wife that missed you for ages and ages right now?"

He had wondered, honestly, and even through the sudden twinge that ran through his body at her words, he found himself rolling over till he was enough to feel her lashes raking across his skin. "Ah, now I unravel your cunning scheme and the real reason why you came all the way back. I should have known my allure was too strong to resist for too long... even if you have been gone for the past month."

Penelo smiled at him coyly, any trace of sleep having now long since fled from her face. "Cunning schemes are more your line of business than mine, Larsa. And I will admit that's one reason I came back so soon. But that isn't the only one."

And then, sitting up, her scandalous night gown looking half ready to slip off her shimmering shoulders, she continued. "It's just that half-way through blabbing on with the duke of some place or another, I realized that my husband was about to celebrate his birthday right around the time I was supposed to show up for another ribbon-cutting ceremony. And that I couldn't exactly give him my present-- or my love-- from half-way around Ivalice! Not when I want to introduce him to the pleasures of being an adult in his 21st year in the world anyhow."

Oh. Oh. Now this was a train of thought he could heartily follow.

"Penelo," he said, already grinning in anticipation, "you first debauched me when I was 17. I'm quite sure that we've already experienced all the pleasures of adulthood together." The image of Al-Cid's... interesting birthday present (which had mostly consisted of an assortment of riding crops and whips; what the hell did he think the crown couple of Archadia did in bed anyway?) unfortunately ran through his mind at that moment. "Well... At least the less terrifying ones."

Penelo, already sliding one knee between his legs in a way that made bits and pieces want to stand up and salute, seemed nostalgic as well. "Oh, now I remember. You're always so cute when you're trying not to collapse of a nose bleed."

Despite himself, Larsa flushed. "It was just a blush, Penelo. A very heavy blush. And besides, I acquitted myself quite nicely afterwards, didn't I?"

It was a wonder how his wife managed to look both beatific and brazen at the same time. "So you did but so you say. All I know was that there was blood on the sheets afterwards and I didn't contribute to that much."

And then, before he could even sputter out a decent rebuttal, one of her slim, white hands (as small as stray birds, no matter how calloused a lifetime of fighting had left them) found perch on his chest, one of them lightly dragging across the more interesting areas of his chest while another broke way south. "But do you particularly mind if I try it again anyway? Just to add a little bonus to my present? After all, we were in a bit of a hurry the last time. I might have left something important out!"

Not being a complete fool, no matter what the hereditary heirs of his realm might have thought, Larsa quickly gave in. Half a minute later, his wife's fingers undoing the knobby buttons of his night shift and her tongue sliding against his skin, he was very glad to have done as much.

Penelo's mouth was always warm; Larsa had had her, once, in the middle of a snow-storm, and wasn't that a memory to keep him well on the nights when she was away? He had taken her completely by surprise and then had taken her, period, on the edge of a frozen cliff as they had made the solitary pilgrimage towards Mt. Bur-Omisace to receive the traditional blessing of the Kiltias for their somewhat-less-than-traditional marriage.

They had been officially engaged for over a month by that point, and the battle royale over how proper said engagement was had been roiling his court upside down as the status-concious nobles rushed to say no and the merchants and landed gentry who longed for titles supported him. In the midst of so many eyes, he hadn't been able to so much as kiss her hand lest it be taken as proof that his marriage would boil down to mere animal passion. Penelo had stayed in Archades for all of that month to offer him some much-needed support, something he would always be grateful for. But having her so close at hand and yet so inaccessible was enough to drive even a man without so much drama in his blood-line mad.

By the time they were making their way up the steep hills, he had been desperate, had all but tackled her almost as soon as they were out of the escort of his judges. Penelo had been torn between being indignant and amused, had asked him if this was i really /i the time, for god's sake Larsa, she was already freezing off some important lady-bits they'd both miss later. But he wanted more than just her flesh-- he could have had any woman in Archades if he wanted merely that much, and he wouldn't have had to marry most of them for that much either.

In the end, Larsa had wanted reassurance and comfort, kindness and forgiveness, to know that he was making the right decision as he went to the mountain this time around and to understand if he finally with someone who would not leave him as all the rest had crumbled as the sad, strange years had gone by. And with that magic divination she seemed to always practice when they were together, she had known as soon as he had kissed her. On that dangerous, snowy plane, she had understood and softened and whispered everything he needed to know into his ear as they huddled against the lashing wind and freezing snow, trying to be invisible to the beasts and elementals that passed by their midst. And in the end, she had wrapped her slim legs around his waist and curled her shaking arms around his shoulders and whispered of all that she had to give as he had pushed deeper and deeper within her, anchoring himself until it felt as though she could never again pass from his sight.

Even then, in the middle of a snow-storm, her mouth had been warm, hot, torrid, scalding. And when she had pressed it against his now-- for the first time in a month, god, god, he had missed her-- he kissed her slowly, took his time taking his pleasure, pressed his fingers eagerly against the gaps of her night gown until she melted like quicksilver at his side.

In the slow, languid aftermath that always came after he had his way with her-- though she'd probably view it in just the opposite perspective-- her gentle fingers slowly wound a steady path across the top of his head to the shuddering muscles of his back. Larsa turned his suddenly heavy head towards hers, watching her skin shine like crushed pearls in the soft light surrounding their bed. She'd say something now-- she always liked to talk after the fact-- and he always welcomed it.

"So I guess that was an agreeable surprise after all," Penelo said brightly from beneath him, though she was already on her way to wriggling out and across from his body. Larsa let her go without a struggle, knowing he'd pin her down soon enough. "You really must have missed me if you were ready to go all out like that."

"I suppose I did," he replied genially, filled with immense faith in her love for him. "If only because I have no-one to toss pastries at my head when you're not here and it's done wonders for my hand-eye coordination. And I do confess to being quite a bit sated by what we just enjoyed together. I mean, it wasn't quite up to my usual standards but given the material I was working with..."

One pillow to the head later (it really was her favorite target on his body), his wife was against him with one hand propping her up and another pointing at his face. "I just rocked your body like no one ever has or ever will again and you know it. Don't even try and deny it and yes I do see that smile on your face." And he was smiling, however much he tried to hide it under the camouflage of her fresh, freckled shoulders, and Larsa willed her to smile with him.

He got his wish in the next moment-- perhaps turning 21 would be a pleasant experience after all, damn the times when she was away and the celebrations other people not named Penelo seemed intent on throwing him. Her slight frown dissolved into that delicate curve he had always adored ever since she had been sixteen and untouchable and towering over his pre-pubescent form. "But all the bad, terrible, rotten and absolutely never to be repeated jokes aside, did you really enjoy that? Because I already found a present for you-- thank God Vaan's always willing to work on commission-- but I thought I might as well toss myself in as a bonus just in case. I don't know if you know, but it's pretty hard to find something for a man who already has everything he could ever need."

Perhaps the nobles of his court had been right-- he really had married the loveliest lunatic in all of Ivalice. She had known him since he had been twelve and still thought it was appropriate to waltz around in formal shorts and cherry red heels and she honestly thought he'd care about something like that?

"That question doesn't matter," he murmured to her, smiling despite the threat of imminent violence in her eyes should he say no. "I really don't care what you give me for my birthday, for the nation's birthday, for our future children's birthdays, for whatever day you please. Whenever you're with me, I really do feel that way."

Seven months of marriage and she still blushed as bright as a ruby whenever he complimented her. Larsa hoped she never lost that trait. "So I'm guessing that means I have to go back to the drawing board next year? Because I know a challenge when I hear one, believe me."

He leaned over once more and took her hot mouth against his once more. Her sweet face was still flushed when he drew away. "That would be a 'whatever pleases you best', dearest," he said, even as he gathered her up in one arm and used the other to turn off the lights hanging about their bed. "But that still leaves one question left."

"Hmmm? And what's that?" With that strange sense of timing Penelo always had, she was already falling asleep on that same arm, which was quickly going numb from her weight. And Larsa knew she'd just wake up the next morning sweaty and naked and half sticking to him and ready to delay him from the official celebrations by doing all this over again.

Life with Penelo would probably always be this way. It would always be a collection of chance moments strung together, leading to explosions and consequences and surprises even his eyes had no way of anticipating. It almost always had been, from the moment he first met her, from the first time they had reunited in Rozarria, from the moment he had realized that he was going to distinguish an already unorthodox reign even further by making an alliance with someone no other person (besides Vaan, damn his hide) could have expected.

He could never sing a song of uncomplicated fairy tales when he was with her, because even in the most outlandish of them, there had never been songs of royal princes uniting with sky pirates, of people who had saved the world coming together to save themselves. But he also knew that he would never have to fear being alone because, when it came to his wife, it wouldn't matter to what strange places he ventured to. She'd be right there by his side, as stubborn and brave and beautiful as ever, no matter where life took him.

Life with Penelo would likely always be a little mad and a little wild, something to be treaded carefully around at times and plunged right into at others.

But on the whole, Larsa found he wouldn't prefer to live it in any other way.

"What are you planning on doing for this same hour next year?"

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**Author's Note:** My God, I can't believe I managed to finish this on time for Valentine's Day! In any case, this fic was definitely an experiment for me in many ways-- it was my first time writing something so long, so epic, spanning so many years and (gasp!) and involving detailed sex. I would really appreciate any and all reviews, comments or critiques for this fic and I promise not to be a fan-brat if I get them either. I want to improve, right here. ;)   
Thanks again to Mithrigil, Auraki, Alma's Muse, LaXhal, Aeris888, Zamnandi and many, many others who took the time to read, review and help me develop my writing so it doesn't shame me quite as much in public. I consider you all to be my on-line, fic-writing, Larsa-and-Penelo-loving Valentines here. ♥

And one last question... would anyone be willing to read about Larsa and Penelo's horrible first time or glacier-gazing antics next? ;)  



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